LETTER: Farewell to Steyning...
She has a blue badge for parking purposes. My vehicle has been specially adapted to accommodate her in the wheelchair in the rear of the vehicle. Last weekend we decided to take a trip to Steyning as we used to enjoy going there when my wife was more mobile. I parked in the main street car park and displayed the blue badge.
On passing the car park notice-board I noticed that people using a blue badge had to pay unless they were in receipt of the higher level of Disability Living Allowance, (now known as Personal Independence Payment).
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Hide AdMy wife doesn’t qualify for this as it is age related and she is older than 64years.
I duly paid the parking fee only to find in small print that the machine doesn’t give change. What’s 25p between friends? Yet another money-making machine aimed at increasing the establishment’s coffers.
After our strolling we decided to have a coffee and a cake in the local tea rooms only to find it had been modified since our last visit.
Admittedly it was busy but I couldn’t find any room for a wheelchair so we left. So a planned pleasant afternoon was spoiled by some penny-pinching bureaucrat who has decided my wife’s disability is not severe enough to warrant an hour’s free parking.
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Hide AdIf anybody knows this person please pass on my comments and wish him/her good health so they won’t have to incur the stigma of being disabled in the future.
Note: how is this discrimination of the disabled monitored? Possibly a parking attendant requesting the motorist’s benefits to ascertain free parking or not. I think not. Farewell Steyning, we won’t be returning.
D. Carter
Willowbrook Park, Lancing
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